Dragonslayers Of Sunnydale
by Eternally Lost Zeppo
Summary: After 'The Gift', the Scoobies must stop the dragon that came from Glory's portal, before it destroys everything Buffy died to protect.
1. Prologue: Close Encounter

Disclaimer: ARRGGGH! The legal bit! Okay, okay! I hold none of the rights to the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or any of its characters and locations. I am writing this solely for the entertainment of others and no money whatsoever has, or ever will exchange hands regarding this story. That oughta make matters clearer. Also, if you are interested in posting any part of this fic elsewhere, for whatever reason, please ask me first at rab_ruth@darkfox.freeserve.co.uk

**Dragonslayers Of Sunnydale**

****

**Prologue****:**

**Close Encounter**

He walked along the harbour feeling, as he had for the past week or two, like his heart had been ripped from his chest. The night air would have frozen him stiff, were he not already cold as stone.  He took a swig from the hip flask in his hand, hoping the bourbon would dull his pain, and help him get over his loss. If anything though, the drinking made it worse. The memories remained fresh in his mind in spite of his attempts to get rid of them.

He remembered pulling out the bloody knife that had been stabbed into his back and dropping it to the ground, standing between Dawn, who was at the edge of this 'walkway' which protruded from the top of Glory's tower, her hands tied to metal posts at either side of her by ropes, and the strange man known only as Doc.

"You don't come near the girl, Doc." Spike had warned him.

"I don't smell a soul anywhere on you." Doc said in disbelief, "Why do you even care?" 

Spike was quick to give him his answer, "I made a promise to a lady."

"Oh?" Doc said, before shooting his long tongue out at Spike, who dodged to the side. Doc dropped to his knees and pulled Spike's legs out from under him, so that he fell to the floor. Dawn watched anxiously as they grappled. They got to their feet, Doc holding on to Spike, pinning his arms behind him.

"Then I'll send the lady your regrets." Doc told Spike in amusement.

Spike's eyes went wide as he looked at Dawn, realising at that moment, he'd failed. 

"No…" He whispered, just before Doc threw him over the edge of the walkway, sending him to the ground below, where he landed on a pile of bricks.

Later, as the portal opened, he came around to find a crack opening in the ground beneath him, and rolled to the side to get out of the way. By the time he managed to get his feet, it was too late. 

He looked up to see a figure jumping from the top of the tower, plummeting down through the portal. As the figure fell from the portal, it shrank away to nothing and the now lifeless body landed on top of a pile of debris. Now he could see who it was. 

It was Buffy.

Spike bit his lip, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to escape his eyes. He was ready to take another swig from the hip flask, but as he lifted it to his lips he realised how light it felt. He held it upside down and nothing came out.

Bugger, Spike thought. He needed something, something to take his mind off the pain, so he began searching his duster pockets, finding a packet of cigarette and his Zippo.

He put the cigarette butt between his lips and flipped open the lid on the lighter, striking his thumb across the flint to ignite it. The flame burned and then the wind picked up at his back, extinguishing it. Spike tried again, holding the lighter closer, the wind grew slightly stronger, dousing the flame yet again. 'Sodding wind.' He thought, sighing in exasperation before trying a third time with the lighter. Again the wind put the flame out. He scowled at that, removing the cigarette from his lips again and throwing his eyes to the heavens in exasperation, feeling a slight breeze blowing in his face as he brought his head back down.

Wait a sec… Spike thought…a breeze blowing in his face? But he could feel the wind blowing behind him, a warm, moist wind… No…not wind… He realised, his eyes going wide as the realisation came to him. 

Something breathing… right down my bloody neck. 

The ground shook beneath him as something landed behind him. He could feel it now, a presence, a dark presence, darker than any he'd felt before.

Filled with dread, he slowly, almost reluctantly, turned his body around to face whatever it was, and found himself staring into large, yellow, reptilian eyes.

The eyes of a dragon.

"Bloody hell…" He muttered. If it were even possible for a vampire's blood to go colder, Spike's would have at the sight of the thing. It seemed to be studying him, as if unsure what it was looking at, sniffing at him as one would sniff food they thought had gone off. Nervously, Spike held out his cigarette shakily and asked in a quiet voice, "Hey mate, got a light?"

Whether the dragon understood him or not, it reared it's head back a moment and let off a deafening, bloodcurdling roar, right in his face. It was hard to tell if it was pissed or not, as the ridges above it's eyes gave it a constant cross-eyed expression. Spike was no wimp, but being faced with this creature and hearing that thunderous noise was enough to make even him turn on his heels and run. 

So he ran. He didn't really care where to, just as long as he got away from that thing. Looking behind him, he became further panicked when he realised the dragon had taken to the air and was flying after him. A hiss could be heard as it drew a breath, just before it spewed fire upon the ground below, while it continued to pursue Spike.

Looking back to see the stream of flames flowing towards him, Spike snapped his head back towards the path ahead in terror, picking up the pace as much as he could, trying to reach a stack of crates up ahead. As he looked back ever few seconds, he could see the flames pouring closer and closer. Out of habit more than from lack of oxygen, Spike found himself puffing and panting in fear. The flames were dangerously close now, almost touching the back of his duster as it fluttered behind him.

Reaching the stack of crates, he took cover behind them, crouching down and pressing his back against the wooden wall they created, only one part of his body was sticking out as the fiery breath reached the crates, his hand. As the fire rolled along the edges of the crates all around him, Spike was just quick enough to pull his hand clear as the flaming breath moved on ahead, and as he looked at the hand, making sure it was still there, he found the cigarette that he had been holding in it had been lit by the flames.

Relaxing a moment as the dragon flew overhead, ceasing its exhalation, he held the cigarette out towards the dragon as it flew forward of him and said, "Huh, thanks mate!" Then he took a long puff from it as he watched the dragon prepare for another pass. He took a moment to savour the tobacco; in the same short moment he stood up, still pressing his back against the crates, and looked around, considering his options. 

Walls of flame blocked off he path he had just taken, the stack of crates he'd taken cover behind formed an L-shape, so further stacks of crates blocked off the water until the way out to the next pier. He could probably just go back the way he came and maybe take the heat, but the flames would catch onto him and he might burn into a cloud of dust before he could reach the water. The dragon had been smart too; as Spike looked around he could see that the other ways out of the harbour had fires blocking them too. Spike exhaled despondently, there was one other option, it could work, or it might just be suicide.

As the dragon came round for it's second attack run, Spike briefly considered just giving up, the painful memories that had brought him here in the first place still eating away at him. 

But he couldn't die, someone had to warn the Slayerettes, so they could stop the creature, because a dragon in town was bad news for demons and humans alike. But there was something else too…

"I made a promise to a lady."

"I'm counting on you…to protect her." 

"Till the end of the world…even if that happens to be tonight."

"No…" Spike said through gritted teeth. He couldn't give up; he had to warn them, to safeguard Dawn.

Taking his cigarette and throwing it aside, Spike steeled himself for a moment, then pushed off from the crates, sounding a battle cry as he ran straight ahead, making a mad dash for the pier. As the dragon swooped down closer to the ground it let off another of its ferocious roars to match Spike's cry. But Spike wasn't going to let it faze him this time, he ran on regardless. Even as the dragon let loose with another volley of its hot breath, he continued to charge onwards. As the flames rushed like a wave towards him, Spike grew closer and closer to the turn into the pier.

Then, just as he reached the turn, the flames reached him. Yet he continued to run down the pier, the dragon continuing to train it's breath on him as it approached, flying closer to the ground. Then it aimed straight at him as it flew close to the ground, and the flames engulfed him.

Even as his clothes caught fire and his body began to cook, he ran to the edge of the pier and lunged forward, throwing himself towards the water. The dragon saw what he was doing, ceased its breath and landed near the edge where he had jumped from mere seconds ago. It's mouth snapped forward to grab onto the one part of Spike's body that was not yet submerged, his flaming leg. The dragon's teeth clamped onto the exposed limb just in time and it moved to pull out its prize, but came away with nothing…except for the mouthful of ashes that were left behind as the limb vaporised from being on fire for too long.

What little ash the dragon hadn't caught in its mouth fell to the water's mirror-like surface, as a few smaller particles of ash floated to the surface from the depths below.

Whether the dragon was pissed or not before, it was certainly pissed off now. It's prey, whether dead now or not, had gotten away, and so it roared furiously at the loss of a good meal, before taking off and letting loose with it's napalm breath on everything that was nearby at the time. Boats, ships, crates, offices; nothing in the nearby harbour was safe from the dragon's wrath. 

Nothing.

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Author's Notes:

Okay, let me just clear up a few details here. I'd describe the genre of this fic to be an action/adventure/angst story; the action/adventure part is of course the 'dragon' story, which will be the main plot of the fic. The angst part deals with the recent death of Buffy Summers and the effect it has on the Scooby Gang members.

I'm also gonna try and include some foreshadowing for events that occurred later in Season Six, and may also include little teasers for a fanfic project I'm working on with my good friend Ellie-18, which we have called the Unofficial Season Seven.

By now, the real season seven of Buffy has already started, but we'll probably still have a crack at the idea anyway.

Also, if anybody is curious as to what happened to the other 'creatures' that came out of Glory's portal in 'The Gift', then I have my own theories about that too. Please let me know whether you'd like me to explain it in a flashback for this story, or as a separate one-shot fic.

I'd like to take this opportunity to give special thanks to Ellie for being my beta-reader for this fic.

Chapter One will follow shortly, since I already have it written. However, I am still trying to get started on Chapter Two, so there may be a bit of a wait for that one.

Hope you enjoyed this little prologue, please send feedback so I know to keep working on the story. 

Cya l8r folks!


	2. Chapter 1: Preludes

Disclaimer: I hold none of the rights to the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or any of its characters and locations. I am writing this solely for the entertainment of others and no money whatsoever has, or ever will exchange hands regarding this story. If you are interested in posting any part of this fic for whatever reason, please email me for permission first at: rab_ruth@darkfox.freeserve.co.uk

P.S. I don't own the Buffy font either, I'm just using it for effect (if it works at all!).

Chapter 1:

Preludes 

It was early morning in Sunnydale, and the sun was starting to creep over the horizon, signalling the coming end to the darkness in which the town's undead community thrived. In one house on Revello Drive, a young red-haired woman was tossing and turning in her sleep, haunted by nightmarish images of her best friend suffering in torment in a hellish other reality. 

Willow woke with a start, sitting upright in the double bed, her eyes scanning the room for a moment as she tried to gain her bearings. _It was just a dream, she realised, looking at the clock at her bedside. _

_6:08.  Still too early, now get back to sleep. With that thought, she laid her head on the pillow once more and tried to get back to sleep. However, the after-images of the nightmare still preyed on her mind._

_But what if it wasn't just a dream? she thought. __Buffy really could be in hell…_

Willow tried both physically and mentally to shake that notion away, but it stuck there, like a thorn. She couldn't get rid of the thought: her best friend was dead.  Killed by mystical forces. That meant her soul might not be where it should be and there was nothing she could do about it. But then her brow crinkled as something registered in her mind.

_Killed by mystical forces?  She repeated the thought. __That means something, I remember reading it in a book…_

Then inspiration hit and a plan began to form. Forgetting all thoughts of sleep she sat up in her bed. Being careful not to disturb her sleeping girlfriend beside her, Willow slipped out of her bed and slid her feet into her slippers before standing ever so carefully and tiptoeing towards the door. Opening it slowly, so as not to make a sound, she squeezed through it and made her way quietly down the corridor. Stopping just outside Dawn's room, Willow opened the door a crack to make sure the young girl was still sleep.  She was sleeping, but as fitfully as Willow had been. 

Although momentarily saddened to see the young girl so troubled in her sleep, Willow's face immediately took on a new level of determination: if she hadn't been entirely sure about looking for a spell before, she was now.  With her 'resolve face' firmly set, Willow quietly closed the door again and made her way to the stairs. 

Stepping into the living room, she thought she heard the distance sirens of fire trucks and police cars somewhere off in the distance, but put that momentary distraction aside.  If it turned out to be something for the Scooby Gang to look into, she'd deal with it then, but at that moment there was something else that demanded her attention. 

Without further thought, she shut the door behind her and headed for the bookcase, pulling out one of the books she and Tara had brought into the Summers house with them the day they'd moved in to care for Dawn. The book was entitled 'History of Witchcraft', and was the same book Willow had once allowed Dawn to find to try to bring back her mother. She flicked through the pages until she came to the section with the header, 'Resurrection -- A Controversy Born.'. As she ran her finger down the page, her eyes darted across the text, repeating the process once she had turned to the next page.

Eventually a line of text caught her attention, and she began to read it quietly to herself. 

"Sometimes, when the deceased has been killed by unnatural means, for example by mystical forces…"  Willow's hopes rose, and she gripped the book closer, reading more intently, not noticing the slight increase in the pitch of her voice. "It is believed it may be possible to raise the person by making an appeal to Osiris, the Egyptian god of the Underworld. A spell to invoke Osiris for the purpose of resurrection is said to be in the Book of Amun Ra." 

Willow looked up from the book, deep in thought.  _Giles has the Book of Amun Ra in his collection on the upper level. Willow frowned at that.  Giles wasn't likely to be thrilled with the idea of using a resurrection spell, so how was she going to get the book without him noticing? __If I could get Anya on board, she might be able to get it. Willow's frown deepened.  She didn't want to get too many people involved in this until she was sure and, with Anya involved, Xander was likely to get suspicious at some point. __At least now I know there's a chance… Hearing someone coming down the stairs, she closed the book and placed in back where it had been before. Then she walked over to the couch and sat down, trying to act casual._

Soon enough, the living room door opened, revealing a bleary-eyed Dawn Summers. "Hey Dawnie." Willow whispered, managing a welcoming smile. "What are you doing up?" 

The younger girl simply shrugged, and replied, "Couldn't sleep." 

Willow nodded, understanding.  "Me neither," she managed to say with ease.  It wasn't exactly a lie after all.

Dawn began to move towards the television, then stopped to ask, "Is it okay if I put the TV on?" 

Willow smiled.  "Yeah, just keep the volume down, okay?"

Dawn grabbed the remote from the sofa and turned the TV on.  Nothing grabbed her interest was on the first channel, so she began skipping channels looking for something of interest. Willow was barely paying attention, thinking about whether to talk to Tara about her plan or not, but she caught a glimpse of a news report and a fire-ravaged scene on the screen, which together with the sirens in the distance, brought her back to reality.

"Dawn, could you give me the remote for a sec?"  Willow stretched her hand outwards as she spoke.  Dawn looked puzzled for a moment, but handed the remote over to the young witch.  Remote in hand, Willow began skipping through the channels until she found the image she had seen before. The news reporter's voice was barely a whisper, so she turned the volume up a couple of notches and listened intently.

"…mystery arsonist dubbed the 'Sunnydale Torch' has struck again, setting a whole section of Sunnydale harbour ablaze. Police and Fire Department officials remain uncertain as to how the 'Torch' was able to set off a fire on such a large scale without causing injury to himself, or of what his possible motive is. However, they have vowed to stop at nothing until he is caught."

Willow remained transfixed by the scale of the destruction on the screen, while Dawn looked at her and asked, "You think it's something supernatural?" 

Willow turned to Dawn, considering the question, then looked back at the inferno on the screen.  Her reply was automatic, monotonous.  "I hope not." 

_Because then we'll have to deal with it, she added mentally._

                        *                      *                                  *                                  *                      *

Spike crashed through the door of his crypt, falling to the floor as he landed inside.  Smoke rose from his slowly cooking flesh, small chunks of which were missing from various parts of his body, having been vaporised by the flames that engulfed him earlier. Fortunately, he had only lost one major part of his body in this manner: his left leg, which had now been reduced to a dried up stump. 

Now, with only one leg to work with, he had to pull himself along the floor and out of the sun's rays, which were, lucky for him, still somewhat weak. Then he crawled around the door and sat up with his back against it, pushing it shut with his weight. 

Once the door was shut, he took a moment to try and rest, but the pain was too much, since his entire body was almost black with burns. He wasn't going to complain right now, though.  As it was, he was lucky not to be ashtray fodder. 

The sun had begun to rise just as he had made it back to the cemetery, not helping   matters much.  He'd thought he was going to bite the big one for sure. But he'd made it to shelter before the sun had reached its most deadly brilliance, and for that he was very grateful. However, he was still somewhat pissed off by the entire experience.

After jumping into the water at the harbour, Spike had spent what seemed like an eternity trying to swim ashore with his remaining leg.  Once ashore, he'd pulled himself up onto his foot and hopped all the way back to the cemetery. Of course, he'd started hopping even more frantically when the sun had started to shine. In that condition, he was lucky no one had decided to pick a fight with him, as he would surely have lost. Obviously the Powers That Be didn't want him to die for some reason, but they must have thought it would be funny to torture him relentlessly before he made it to safety.

He took another moment to steel himself for the pain that would come with any movement, caused by the cracking of his brittle skin, then, with a stifled cry of agony, started to drag himself up onto his foot, using the door as a support. He did so slowly, to lessen the pain and reduce the risk of losing his balance. Once upright, he took a moment to think, in spite of the pain that threatened to overload his brain. 

_Well, this is no bloody good. He looked down at the stump that was left of his leg. He needed something to help him walk if he was going to make the trip to the Magic Box as soon as the sun went down. After a moment, he remembered that he had something somewhere in the crypt that might help him. Of course he didn't know exactly where he had put the thing. That, coupled with the limited movement his one-legged status allowed him, told him he had a long search ahead of him._

_That's alright, he thought dryly as he got started hopping around and searching the crypt. __There's plenty of time until sundown._

                        *                      *                                  *                                  *                      *

On the other side of Sunnydale, near the shore, the dragon flew alongside the rock face that made up this part of the coastline, looking for a place to shelter and rest for a while. Though the creature had no problems with being out during the daytime, it realised that this world was unlike the one it had come from. The humans here were resourceful and had much less primitive weaponry than in its own reality. But it seemed that there were no other dragons in this world either, therefore the humans were probably too inexperienced to deal with it. Nonetheless, it knew it was best to hunt only during the daytime, when the humans were most vulnerable…for now.

Eventually finding a large enough cavern in the rocks, out of the tides reach, the dragon flew inside and landed on the rocky floor, then moved deeper inside the cave and lay down on its belly. First it would get some sleep, and then it would wait patiently for night to fall once more. As soon as it did, it would be time go out on the hunt once again.

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Author's Notes:

First of all, for all the Spike fans out there, I'm sorry! Really! I like the guy, I really do, but I needed him out of the fight for this fic, so that's why I decided to put him through this torture. It's nothing personal against Spike.

As you can see I'm gonna try and show Willow and the others in the beginning stages of the plan to bring Buffy back, which I'm gonna try and use as a secondary storyline.

I'm going try and get some work started on Chapter Two soon, but with all the college projects mounting up and stuff it could take a while, so bear with me.

The formatting hasn't turned out quite the way I would have liked here on fanfiction.net, but hopefully, once I get everything set up to post the fic on my website, you'll be able to see it in the way I intended it to be seen.

Well, that's all for now folks and again, please R&R so that I know to continue the story. 

Cya l8r!

P.S. It has come to my attention that at least one person who reviewed this fic, may believe that I am planning on resurrecting Buffy at some point in the course of the story. I would just like to make it clear to everyone that this fic is NOT an AU story. 

It deals with events that may have happened between 'The Gift' and 'Bargaining Part One' and I do not intend to add anything that doesn't fit with the series' continuity. There will be a sub-plot showing Willow and the others starting to plan to resurrect Buffy, but Buffy will not actually be resurrected 'during' the fic. 

I'm sorry if there has been any confusion about this.

As for my progress in writing the rest of the story, I am currently working on chapter 2 and expect to have it ready within the next week or two. Stay tuned, folks!


	3. Chapter 2: Forewarned

Disclaimer: Oh for crying out loud! It's on the prologue and chapter one, do I really need to repeat it? Oh, alright, alright already… geez! Okay, I own none of the characters or any other part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon and co do. The only thing that is mine is this fic and any original characters, locations, etc in it. I'm not gonna make a penny from this story, it's been written purely for the entertainment of others. However, if anyone is interested in borrowing any part of this fic for some reason, please ask me first at rab_ruth@darkfox.freeserve.co.uk

P.S. I don't own the fonts here either, I'm just using them for effect. Chapter 2: 

Forewarned...

Night fell upon Sunnydale, and it was once again time for the town's demonic residents to begin stalking the many streets and cemeteries of the town. It was for this reason that the town's resident group of demon fighters, who called themselves the 'Scooby Gang' began to converge on the 'Magic Box' shop, to prepare for any patrolling that might have to be done later in the night.

Three of the Scoobies were already there; Rupert Giles, his business partner Anya, and her fiancé, Xander Harris. Giles and Anya were busy closing up the shop, while Xander sat at the 'research table', pretending to be deeply involved in reading one of Giles' rather old and extremely rare books. Every once in a while, he would steal a loving glance at his wife-to-be, until she started noticing his attentions and got distracted from her work, which earning them both one of Giles' patented looks of exasperation. That would usually be the point Xander started to find the book interesting again.

It wasn't long before a telltale jingle from the door signalled the arrival of Willow and Tara, followed by Dawn, who they had to pick up from school on the way to the Magic Box. Xander looked up from the book, glad for the distraction and greeted them, "Hey Will! How's my wiccan best bud doing today?" No sooner had the words left his mouth than he thought to himself, _Lame Harris, very lame._ But he had to at least try and be his usual goofy self, now more than ever, with what had happened lately someone had to do something to keep spirits up. Xander had realized long ago that such matters were his responsibility, whether he had intended for it to end up that way or not.

He was relieved that Willow was at least able to manage a smile at his cheery welcome, as was Tara. "Not too bad today, Xand." She said in reply to his question. Although Xander smiled back in response, on the inside he was slightly puzzled by the response, there was something different about Willow today. Having known her since childhood, he was probably more likely to notice it than anyone else. It was something in her eyes. 

Ever since Buffy's death, Willow had become extremely depressed, and out of the rest of the gang only Dawn seemed sadder in comparison. But today Willow seemed better; there was a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

_Not just that,_ Xander realised, _she's got her resolve face on…could she be planning something?_

Xander frowned, deep in thought. _What could she possibly be planning that's got her spirits up?_

After a few moments, he sighed and put that thought away for later reference, deciding to talk to her about it later, once he was sure he was reading her correctly.

The thoughtful looks on Xander's face hadn't escaped Willow's notice though, so she asked him, "Something wrong Xander?" Xander looked up in surprise and gave the first reply that came to mind, "Huh?" Willow smiled at the response and tried again, "You seemed kinda distracted." It was as much of a statement of fact as it was a question, and Xander winced at the fact she's picked up on his introspective moment. "Uh, well…" _C'mon Xander, just ask her! _He prodded himself.

"It's just that…well, you seem…better today?" Xander caught a look forming on Anya's face, and suddenly realized that perhaps that wasn't the best way to phrase the comment, so he added, almost in panic, "Um…emotionally I mean!"

_Way to go Xander, another day, another case of foot-in-mouth…_ He chided himself. Luckily, Anya seemed to calm down after he added the last part to his statement. He almost sighed in relief, but decided not to relax just yet.

"Uh…yeah, I just woke up this morning and, uh…" Willow started to babble, trying to make up some reason for why she seemed in a better mood today, unfortunately the best she came up with was, "…I felt better." Most of the Scoobies just looked at her strangely for a moment, until Giles finally broke the silence and said, "Well, let's begin shall we?"

That diverted everybody's attentions from her as they all took seats at the 'research table', everybody except for Xander. 

He was still looking at her with the same look that he had been giving her since she started her 'babble fit', a look of suspicion.

"So does anyone have anything they want to mention, anything with possible supernatural connotations?" Giles asked, that broke Xander's attention from Willow, as he turned to the former librarian and inquired, "Conno-what?"

Giles rolled his eyes and decided to give a layman's version of his question, for Xander's sake at least, "Has anyone heard or seen anything today that may have been caused by supernatural forces?" 

Nobody answered at first, then Willow remembered the news broadcast earlier that day and said, "Well, there was that big fire at the harbour last night." Giles' interest perked up at that, taking his glasses off and wiping them with a handkerchief as he spoke, "Yes, I heard about that. I must admit the level of destruction caused was rather extraordinary, but I'm at a loss as to what kind of creature could have caused it."

No sooner had Giles finished his sentence, than the door to the magic shop flew open and a figure walking with a crutch, and wearing a sheet over his body came barging in, screaming, "Dragon!" before slamming the door shut behind him. 

"There's a bloody dragon on the loose out there!" Spike said, keeping his face hidden under the sheet.

Looking up from what they had been doing, everybody got a good look at Spike's form as he stood at the door, and the stump that was left of his left leg.

"Good lord, Spike what happened to you?" Giles asked, not sounding deeply concerned, just mildly interested. Nobody could see Spike's face at all, but they just knew he would probably be giving one of his 'you can't be serious' looks underneath that sheet. "A _bloody_ dragon happened is what, didn't you hear me the first time Watcher?"

"Dragon?" Giles murmured under his breath, his eyebrows creased in concern, before turning around and heading for the books.

"Spike? Are you okay?" Dawn asked as she got up from her homework and approached him fearfully. 

"Don't look at me, 'lil bit, I'm not a pretty sight…" He said, waving her off. She kept coming towards him though.

"Spike?" She asked again, gentler this time.

"Go out to the back room, I don't want you to see me like this." He said more forcefully this time.

"Why not?" She asked in a hurt voice. "Because Buffy wouldn't want you to see what I look like right now, all gore and the like, now go out back!" Tara was at Dawn's side now and with a hand placed gently on her shoulder, she led the reluctant younger girl to the back room.

When he was sure Dawn was out of the room, Spike gingerly lifted the sheet from his face, and revealed what lay beneath to those still in the room. Everybody looked away in fright, even Xander, who had never cared much for Spike anyway. The skin and hair on a whole side of his face was gone, revealing the charred muscle structure beneath, and his lips were gone leaving his teeth bare for all to see.

Holding his nose to keep out the stench of Spike's charred flesh, Xander was first to speak. "Wow! Spike, you managed to come in looking and smelling grosser than usual!" For that comment, Xander received a glare from Spike, that was made all the more disturbing by the current condition of his face, and an elbow in the side from Willow, who chided, "Xander!"

Rubbing the sore spot in his ribs, he said in self-defence, "C'mon Will, I was only kidding."

The exchange was broken when Giles called out from the bookshelves he was searching, "Spike, are you quite sure it was a dragon that attacked you?" Spike rolled his eyes in exasperation and shouted back, "Yes, I'm bloody sure! Big lizard with wings, breaths fire, sound enough like a dragon to you?"

Everybody was now looking at Giles, and they could tell that he seemed quite rattled and when they looked at Anya, she seemed even worse. "Giles? What's wrong?" Willow asked worriedly. The retired librarian looked at the rest of the group, pale as a ghost. "But they're extinct." He finally said, "Dragons have been extinct from this earth for millennia. There were some isolated cases in Ancient China and Medieval Europe, but dragons as a species…" He trailed off as he returned to his search for whatever book he hoped to find on the shelves.

"Giles?" Xander prodded for him to continue, but Giles was too involved in his search, "Giles!" He tried again, louder this time, succeeding in snapping Giles's attention back to him. "Hmm?" Giles responded intelligently. "You were saying?"

Suddenly getting what Xander was asking him, Giles shook himself back into reality and continued his story, "Oh right, well the dragons were reputed to have existed in our dimension around the same time as the Old Ones. When the Old Ones were driven from our realm, so were the dragons. The few dragons that have been encountered since then were summoned into this world from the realm in which they were imprisoned by powerful sorcerors seeking to control them and use them for their own ends." Giles returned to his book search again, but continued to speak this time, "Of course, they were unable to control the dragons and, in most cases the summoners were eventually killed by the creature themselves."

Xander frowned at that, "So I guess it's not one of those 'kill the bad sorcerer and the spell is broken' deals?" He asked, though he knew the answer already. "Unfortunately not." Giles replied, "The only way to kill a dragon is to defeat it in battle. Ah, there it is!" Giles proclaimed in triumph, retrieving one of the older looking books in his collection and flipping it open.

"Now Spike, this particular dragon breathed fire, yes?" the looks he got from everyone, except Anya, plainly said, 'Duh!' Spike was the first to speak his mind, giving the dry reply, "Yeah, it breathed fire, that's what dragons do isn't it?"

Realising not for the first time, that the others weren't all as knowledgeable in such things as he was, Giles explained, "Well, in previous accounts given in the Watchers' Diaries, one watcher described a dragon as breathing 'icy breath', while another tells of a dragon that shoots projectiles of charged magical energy from it's mouth. So certain dragons do breath something other than fire."

While the others were visibly surprised at this, Spike maintained a bored expression as always, and said, "That's brilliant Rupert, but how do we kill the soddin' thing?" Glaring at Spike over the rim of his glasses, Giles continued to leaf through the book, until he eventually stopped on a specific page, "Ah, here it is. Yes, it says here take out the heart, and you kill the beast. Presumably one would use a spear or a sword." He said aloud as he read the page.

"So, now we know how to kill it, but how do we find it?" Xander asked. A resigned look came across Giles' face, as he had no idea. But Willow did, and she said, "Well, it must be the dragon that's behind these recent arson attacks, so the next time it strikes, we just have to patrol the area surrounding whatever place gets attacked next."

Giles nodded his ascent, "That sounds like a reasonable idea, Willow. In the meantime I suggest we prepare ourselves for battle."

*          *          *          *          *

The walls of the cavern vibrated with the sound of the dragon's snoring, as it lay sleeping within. The vibrations stopped abruptly and the dragon's eyes snapped open. Rising to its feet, the dragon stretched its wings as much as it could inside the cavern and gave off a deafening roar as it shook itself awake. It started stomping out of the cavern, shaking the cavern with each step it took. Poking its head out of the cavern mouth, the dragon looked out at the ocean; though the sun itself was out of sight, there was still a golden glow in the sky. It wasn't time yet, the dragon decided, but it would be soon.

So it waited patiently, as the last remnants of daylight slowly disappeared over the horizon.

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Author's Notes:

Whew! Sorry that chapter took so long to complete folks, been busy with College stuff and all, not to mention a killer case of writer's block! I know there's not much going on at this point, but hopefully we'll be getting round to some more dragon action pretty soon. I only have a rough idea of how I want the plot to develop, other than that I'm really just playing it by ear.

I made a slight reference to a movie that was released fairly recently, who can guess what it was?

Thanks again to Ellie for beta-reading this chapter for me.

Well, hope you're enjoying the story, as always please send in feedback so that I know it's worth me continuing the fic.

Cya l8r!


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